SONAFILM 2021 – Summary
On Friday 20 & Saturday 21 of August, the 3rd edition of SONAFILM was celebrated, having two film music concerts in the towns of Denia and Ondara (Alicante, Spain).
Gori Martínez attended both concerts and tells us about it in this special article exclusively for SoundTrackFest.
FRIDAY - 20/8/2021 - MYTHICAL MOVIE SONGS
The concert was performed by the group Moanin’ Project and offered well-known songs from famous movies.
Moanin’ Project is part of the Associació Aljub Músic from Beniarbeig, whose cultural manager is Javier Gil Pérez and offered a program developed to premiere at the SONAFILM 2021 Festival.
The concert was held in the Torrequemada Park in Denia with the attendance of about 500 people. Free concert by invitation with tickets sold out days before the concert.
The park is a very nice and well used stage for this type of events. The Councilman of Culture of Denia, Raul Garcia de la Reina, told us that this city does not have theaters that can accommodate so many people, so adapting this park for these events is a way to somehow make up for this lack. He also told us that this is the first year that, together with Ondara, are part of the SONAFILM program and that next year they hope to expand the number of towns that join the Festival.
We were talking with “Fran”, the leader of the group Moanin’ Project who told us that the group is originally a jazz quartet, but for this occasion there are nine musicians. If the program is successful, they do not discard the possibility of doing this show in other places.
The members are: Fran on guitar, Samuel on drums, Toni on trumpet, David on sax, Emiliano on violin, Mariano on piano, Jose on bass and double bass, Edi is the male voice and Cristina the female voice. All the members have studied classical music, all of them are dedicated to music and live in the Valencian Community.
Some pieces were instrumental and others songs, which meant a varied and entertaining program that made the audience enjoy the concert.
Saturday - 21/8/2021 - CONCERT “EPIC MOVIES MUSIC”
Held in the bullring of Ondara, the concert was performed by the Universal Symphony Orchestra conducted by José Martínez Colomina. The concert was dedicated to epic soundtracks, with a first part exclusively for the music of Howard Shore for the trilogies of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and the second part to a selection of epic themes of cinema.
The entire concert was accompanied by images of the films being played, in addition to the play of lights on the stage.
The Orchestra was formed by 65 musicians plus the Conductor, in addition, in the first part it had the participation of the Coda Children’s Choir, this being its second participation in SONAFILM (the first was in 2019), and had 36 voices conducted by Sebastiá Roig.
In the second part intervened the Cor de la Rectoría, led by Jaume Morey, with 38 participants. Also part of this great Concert was the Soprano Saray García singing the theme of “The Ecstasy of Gold”.
The Conductor of the Orchestra, as in previous years, José Martínez Colomina, did an excellent job in coordinating both the instruments and the voices since, being the venue a bullring, the sound is not transmitted the same as in an auditorium.
The Universal Symphony Orchestra is part of the Associació Aljub Music from Beniarbeig, whose cultural manager is Javier Gil Pérez and this is their second participation in SONAFILM, since last year it was the Universal Chamber Orchestra that delighted us with a concert on the same stage.
In any case, this is the third year of this Festival and for sure there will be many more since due to the success obtained, the concerts of film music will continue in this area. This was confirmed by the Mayor of Ondara, and thanks to the great work done by the Councilor for Culture of this City with Javier Gil, will be a sure success.
About a thousand attendees were able to enjoy this magnificent concert, both in the stands and on the stage set up for it, although shortly before the concert, as last year, rain clouds threatened to spoil the party.
At 23h the show began and the audience enjoyed each and every one of the themes, being the most applauded Game of Thrones and especially The Ecstasy of Gold by Ennio Morricone. This last theme is the one that gives the starting signal for next year’s Festival, which will be dedicated to this great composer who passed away in 2020.
Article and pictures by Gori Martínez